Archive of ‘Wedding’ category

It’s a weird process to become a new you, when nothing about you or your life has really changed – we were living together already, all of our finances were joint already, I was even on his insurance at his last employer because they allowed covering “domestic partners.” I haven’t even started the process of changing my name on everything yet. Though I did change my twitter username (priorities!). I am now officially @SarahRoseDoran. I can request copies of our marriage license now and I’m sure the process of changing all of my accounts, social security, etc. will be long and annoying, and I will miss signing Laupan (I love my cursive L), but I am dedicated to becoming Mrs. Sarah Doran.

It seems like the wedding was sooo long ago, even though it’s only been two weeks. I think it has something to do with life without wedding planning. You know how when you listen to a song or see a show/movie/commercial for the first time, you digest every detail of it and it seems like it fills each second – and the second, third, fourth time you listen/see it it seems to rush by? I think that’s what I’m experiencing. I’m experiencing life without wedding planning paying attention to each detail and second. Planning and thinking about the wedding was my reality for a solid year and a half. Now that it’s over, I have time and brainspace to concentrate on other things. It’s kind of awesome.

I’m looking forward to getting back to the barn. It’s been almost two months since I’ve ridden last. I’m almost (almost) looking forward to how sore I’ll be the next few weeks as I get back into it. I’m hoping to be ready to do the jumping course at Hunter’s Pace, a hunt-style trail ride, at the beginning of October. But even if I don’t think I can handle the full jumping course, doing the non-jumping course (and trying a few of the jumps like I did last year) will still be fun, too.

Only five days left until I become a Mrs.! I’m excited, but I will admit it hasn’t fully hit me yet. There’s still lots to do before then and I’m sure I’ll be caught up in all of that until the day before or even that morning.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now change your Facebook status to married.”

I wanted to ask my fellow modern women out there – what do you do about your changing to your married surname when it comes to social media? I’ve always known I would want to take my husband’s name, but I guess I never considered that when creating my twitter, gmail, instagram, and every other social media and website account possible because I most commonly use Srlaupan (my first initial, middle initial and last name). I kinda screwed myself there, didn’t I? :)

I currently have a unique last name, so it’s always been easy to secure usernames with it. However, I’m now changing to a much more common last name – Doran. And combined with my ULTRA common first name, I had a hard time finding a username that was available that I liked.

I admit that a while back when we first got engaged I went out and parked two options for Gmail and Twitter – sarahrosedoran and sarahrdoran. The second one is shorter (by 3 characters) but I do like using my first and middle name. I’ve tried coming up with a more unique, evergreen username based on just my first and middle names so I could change over BEFORE we got married (one less thing to think about this week/right after the wedding would have been nice), but I couldn’t come up with anything that wasn’t taken.

I’m not too worried about my SEO, because I don’t own my own business, I haven’t done too much freelance work and I’ve only “been around” for a few years. But for women business owners and those that have worked long and hard to establish their personal brand, I can’t imagine having to make the decision about not changing at all, changing over personally but not professionally, or changing over completely and losing a bit of their hard earned SEO/name recognition.

How did you/do you plan on handling a married name change in this world of SEO and social media identities?

When I said lots has been going on in my last post I really wasn’t kidding. Fast forward two months and there has been a new thing crossed off my 101 in 1,001 list, a decision on our honeymoon, an accident, engagement pictures, a new car, applying for a new job, a trip to South Dakota, a trip to Arizona, an offer for that new job, and a crazy two weeks finishing up at the old job. I’ve been writing thoughts down intermittently but haven’t gotten the chance to finish any posts – but I promise to change that.

Today we are going to head out to shop for suits for the guys – fingers crossed this place has one that is a style we like, a fit we like, AND can come in all the needed sizes for our guys. I definitely thought the suit process would be easier than this – aren’t the GIRLS supposed to be the difficult ones to dress?! That was easy peasy.

Also, this afternoon is my bridal shower! It definitely feels weird. I haven’t had the “this shit just got real” moment regarding the whole wedding yet, but I feel like I’m on the verge. I did think that I would be super anticipating my bridal shower, going out and buying a new dress especially for the occasion and just basking in the bridal glow and joy – that hasn’t really happened, but I also think the stress of changing jobs (spoiler: the new job is mine) could be affecting that. As well, I always imagined my bridal shower would be on a bright and sunny day, but today’s not only going to be rainy, but thunderstorms are forecasted for the entire afternoon. Oh well. Let’s hope this weather karma means that the wedding day will be gorgeous in exchange. :)

Our wedding is nowhere near done being planned, but now that we have most of the major things at least reserved I’m excited to turn my attention to planning our honeymoon.

Totally horrible confession: Pat and I haven’t been on a vacation for vacation’s sake since we’ve been together. We have had the chance to travel together a bit, but it’s always been with other people and for a reason. Indianapolis – driving a Penske truck for our friend who is a high school marching band director for a competition of theirs. We shared the cab of the truck with another of our friends and we shared the whole trip with 200+ high school students and their parents and other chaperones. Denver – with Pat’s family for his grandpa’s funeral and to visit family there, but we did get an afternoon to ourselves to go explore. Montana – again with Pat’s family to visit more family and for his grandparents’ anniversary/birthday/family reunion celebration. I’m excited to really get away together ALONE for the first time – now we just have to pick where to go.

Last night we were talking about where it is we would want to go and what we’d want to do, and it made me wonder – will we get bored on a beach just relaxing? I’ve been to Mexico once, but it was only for 3 days and we packed a lot of activities into it. Pat went on a sailing trip in the聽Caribbean with Boy Scouts when we was a teenager, which was obviously packed with activities. My absolutely favorite trip was to a dude ranch where I spent all week waking up early and doing cattle drives. Pat is the “I enjoy myself most when I’m working” type of guy, too. I think we’ll both enjoy the opportunity to laze on a tropical beach, but I wonder if we’ll really LOVE it.

What are your thoughts on what type of honeymoon trip to take? Are you the active type, but you still enjoyed a relaxing beach honeymoon after all the craziness of a wedding? Or did you go crazy doing nothing on a beach? Did you do an active honeymoon and feel even more exhausted after just coming off the wedding chaos or were you able to enjoy it? Any insight is greatly appreciated!

I’m already feeling at my wit’s end and I’m only at the very beginning of wedding planning. We only got engaged at the end of September, but I’ve consistently kept abreast of wedding trends, etc. ever since my junior year of high school when I helped plan my mom’s wedding. I’ve always contemplated a career somehow related to the wedding or events industry, so my interest in wedding planning was always a hobby, but I did hope it would also come in handy for when the day came around that I could actually use it. I’ve been hoping that I just was missing some magical venue out there that I wasn’t seeing yet, because I wasn’t planning my own wedding yet.

Personally, I think the venue of the ceremony and reception is the biggest, most key part of setting the entire mood/theme/feeling of the event. I want everyone that is coming to celebrate with us to feel as if they’re coming home, to celebrate with old friends and dear family, even if the only people they know at the event is us. What do you feel is the most important part (besides the two people in love entering into MARRIAGE part, duh.) to creating an overall great wedding?

Hello

sar-ahn-dip-i-ty | noun
1. "happy accident" 2. "pleasant surprise" 3. the ability to recognize the good in the bad, the success in the failure, and the destiny in things not sought for.Learn more about Sarah